29 Nov 2015

A Few Events over the Past Fortnight

Firstly, a pic from Facebook, of two of the grandchildren enjoying Disneyland HK.

This annual Langford Multicultural Food Fair (not far from us) has, we've just learned, been going on for 15 years without our knowledge.

We just had to go and see what it's like. The paella stall looked interesting, and Grandma C had that.

Sadly, it wasn't as good as it looked. I had Kabuli pilau from the Afghan stall - hoping it would be as good as that which I had in the Khyber Restaurant in Kabul in the 70s. It was good, but not spectacular.

Incidentally, I checked on Google, and that Khyber Restaurant is still around, despite everything that's happened there. (Here's a link to a photo of it in 1969.)

There were lots of other stalls; the Aboriginal one, for example, had kangaroo.

We didn't have the satay, which someone else told us was very good.

Or this Chinese peanut cake.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have two house guests this fortnight when the rest of the family are on holiday.

Since Fleming died, I haven't been out on the early morning walks we used to take together. These two brought the dogwalk routine back, for a while, at least.

That's Molly, a Shih Tzu cross.

Zhaan (pronounced Zen) is a rare breed in Oz - a Canaan (to our knowledge, there's only four of them on this continent). They're bred from Israeli desert wild dogs and Zhaan is 3rd generation from wild. She has a lovely friendly disposition, but tends to be very nervous and wary of strangers and other dogs.

Here's a couple more shots of them enjoying Adenia Reserve, which is less than a kilometre from our house.

Finally, the street lamp outside our house went out. Everyone in the street must have been waiting for someone else to report it. After 2 weeks, I reported it on the relevant website and happened to be outside my front door when they came to fix it.

Oh, one more thing: Grandma C made this cake for the raffle at her church fete.

That must be butter! We do have that here too...but unfortunately, they use margarine - butter is way too expensive. They have it in the thin crispy ones, not too sure if they do the same with those thick spongy versions.

Could be butter, though I must admit I've never noticed butter in in. Nowadays I find the old hawker foods are changing, as you've said above, with different fillings for this cake. Must be the competition, with everyone trying to get some advantage over the other vendors.

Thanks for all the comments regarding this pancake. I also received a comment from an anonymous source suggesting the yellow stuff is creamed corn. Somehow, this comment seems to have disappeared. Thanks, anonymous.

BlogSpot doesn't like me much :( but yes I'm quite sure it's creamed corn coz of the small yellow lumps at the top which are the kernels. As Min Zhang Kueh is 1 of my favourite local snacks, I've eaten quite enough to know what goes in. Wow butter with this will be a match made in heaven..n a whole lot healthier than margarine which is used coz it's cheaper. What I really miss though is the old school version of margarine, sugar and an egg cooked just set in the pancake....*drools*

Actually corn's commonly used in SG and M'sia but SG's MZK's quality has been declining over the years due to corners being cut in terms of ingredient quality. Really tragic. And even though the Oz version is not done in the right sequence or using the correct pan, I'm sure it tastes a lot better coz of the ingredients but more importantly the heart that's put into making it. Oh well, that's the story of SG in a piece of MZK. Declining quality in the name of capitalism.

By the way love your blog. It's real and heartfelt. Came across it when I was reading up on Singaporeans who have migrated. Am going through the long process myself now and reading your blog gives me hope and confidence that things will work out in the future. So don't stop blogging!

Thank you Mel. We've been here since 1981, when I came at the age of 35. I have almost spent half my life here and must say we have no regrets. Best wishes in your quest in coming to the Land of Oz, and may you have as happy a journey as we've had.

Thank you for your well wishes. I'm 36 now so I guess our experiences will be similar. I'm sure the journey will be happy, scary, exciting all rolled together but I'm looking forward to it. Am still waiting for an invite from NSW since I submitted my EOI couple of months back. Fingers crossed we'll get to share our stories in the next few months. Take care and wishing you and your family good health.

Now that's a lovely cake. Never tried paella, sure would like to some day - none here...but I did have satay the other day, pork...and that will be in tomorrow's blogpost. Ahhhh!!!! Tinkerbell! Bet the kids had a great time! I did, went to the one in Tokyo a long long time ago.

Yes, Grandma C spends a lot of time on her cakes. This is her retirement hobby. Paella is available here, but then again, not as common as other dishes. The one at this fair had only chicken and chorizo sausage. No seafood, like what you normally see on paellas. From what I've seen on YouTube, they're not that difficult to make.